


Welcome Wanderer

by DaughterofProspero



Category: Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works, The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Freedom, POV Third Person, Rainforests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 07:16:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5776534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterofProspero/pseuds/DaughterofProspero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'll deliver all;<br/>And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales<br/>And sail so expeditious that shall catch<br/>Your royal fleet far off.<br/>My Ariel, chick,<br/>That is thy charge: then to the elements<br/>Be free, and fare thou well!"</p>
<p>It has been a year since Ariel was released from Prospero's service. Having found a friend in the mischievous Robin Goodfellow, the two ponder the human concept of time, and the universal one of being.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Wanderer

“I had them in hysterics – one of them ran right into a tree!” Puck finishes the story in a fit of effervescent giggles, somersaulting backwards into a cross-legged seat beside the other fairy. Ariel lets out a murmured laugh, recalling another tale of human foolery – two drunkards scrambling madly across rocky terrain, a misshapen creature hot on their clumsy heels.

The two sprites are perched atop a rich forest canopy somewhere in the Amazon, the foliage barely registering their weight. They had met passing each other briefly on a current of the prevailing westerlies and introduced themselves. Puck was fascinated by the tranquil blue anomaly, and Ariel was grateful for the company of another fairy not of island-ilk.

Now they saw each other regularly – sometimes by chance, sometimes in a pre-determined ring of mushrooms; trading stories and secrets.

Puck flops back, looking up at the night sky and tracing constellations with a mint fingertip.

“What do the humans call that one again?”

“Ursa Major” replies Ariel, automatically. The images of Prospero’s star-charts inked onto weather-worn pages are still crystal clear.

“Weird.”

“Mm.”

“How do you see that and think ’bear’?”

“Mm.”

Ariel’s non-descript responses are distracted.

“Hey,” Puck sits up again and elbows Ariel lightly in the side, “you alright?”

“It’s been a year to the day.”

“Since he let you go?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” The conversation between them lulls leaving the rustling of tropical foliage in its place.

“Why…do you still use human years?” Puck tentatively rekindles the exchange.

“Force of habit, I suppose.”

“Do you miss him?”

“I…don’t know.”

“That’s okay.” Puck eyes a star uncomfortably, unsure of how to proceed. Clever as fairies are, they’re not renowned for their predilection to psychiatric analysis. Then, unexpectedly, Ariel elaborates.

“I miss having a purpose. I liked watching them grow, especially Miranda. Sometimes they treated me like one of them, it was strange. Not unpleasant. But just so…human. It was easy to get caught up in their world. Maybe because it was so small.” Ariel sighs and lays down beside Puck. “I was freed so suddenly, I thought I would feel new. I thought I would know…what to do and where to go. But I didn’t. It was just me, and the island and the witch’s son. Twelve human years as a servant, and another twelve before that in...  
And I don’t know how to just…go.”

A toucan caws forlornly somewhere beneath the vermillion canopy. Farther away riding the tailcoat of the first call’s echo another _krrrrrreaaah_ answers.

“I know what I am but I don’t know why.” The two fairies let the night fill their vision; the stars like daylight peeking through pinpricks in a black velvet blind. Neither moves, feeling the wide leaves beneath their backs and palms thrum with chlorophyll. Puck has never known a fairy so subdued and still. Sometimes Ariel will bob for hours in a cross-breeze – explaining later it feels like when humans rock their infants in a cradle. Puck tried rolling around in the moss for a bit but the experience of which the blue spirit spoke was proving illusive. Perhaps existentialism is little too mortal of a concept for Robin Goodfellow to grasp.

“Have you gone back? To the island, I mean.”

“No”

“Have you gone to see either of your humans since?”

Ariel chuckles softly through a wry smile.

“What?” Puck asks

“’My humans’?”

“Well...they – you know what I mean…”

“I do. And no, I haven’t.”

“Do you think you will?”

“Maybe.”

Puck’s mouth crinkles in thought.

“You don’t _have_ to know why you are right now. I mean, if you find it out soon then, great, but…just because you’re…” Fidgeting a little, Puck searches for the right word, “ _unemployed_ doesn’t make you...”

“Void?“

“Void, sure, exactly. Look at the humans – they have, what, seventy of their years? Give or take? Sometimes it takes them half of that just to figure out one thing they believe in. But they get there! You have eons – infinity!” Puck springs up, fluttering jazz-hands at Ariel who can’t help but smile.

“Yes. Thank you. That’s…good to hear. Some days feel more…void than others.”

“You’re not alone, buddy.” Puck looks to the sky again, where dawn has begun to encompass the tree-lined horizon.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always thought these two would be friends. And now - through the power of fanfiction - SO THEY ARE! 
> 
> Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
